Popular Songs and Legal Justice in Tanzania: Case of ‘Jumba Bovu’ [Bad House/Luck] and ‘Jela’ [In Prison] Bongo Flava Injustice Exposés

Abstract

This article applies John Rawls’ theory of ‘justice as fairness’ to analyse the evocation of complaints in popular songs1, songs as one among different efforts against injustice. Later, interviews with composers of the songs followed to prove the interpreted meaning from the content of text data in the analysed songs. Two specific bongo flava songs: ‘Jumba Bovu’ by Mac Dizzo and ‘Jela’ by LWP, were analysed to find how they address the issue. Findings show that generally, the two songs condemn the weakness of justice system, that it is biased against the poor/those with low socio-economic status.